Most people would consider a college recruiter to be little more than a salesman.
Don’t try and sell that to Ben Lopez.
“I’m not trying to sell people anything,” Lopez said. “I’m in the giving business.
“I give out scholarships.”
Lopez, a Mission native and 2012 inductee into the RGV Sports Hall of Fame, is the admissions counselor for Lindenwood University. The institution is divided between its campus in St. Charles, Mo., affiliated with NCAA Division II athletics and boasting an enrollment of 17,400, and its other site (Lindenwood-Belleville) in Illinois, which opened in 2004 and is affiliated with the NAIA with an enrollment of approximately 3,000.
Since 1995, more than 500 student-athletes from the Rio Grande Valley have been recruited to the Lindenwood system. The odd relationship between the border region and the Midwest starts with Lopez’s son, Joe, a standout football player for Mission High under Sonny Detmer in the early ’90s who graduated from Lindenwood in 1995.
Joe attended Lindenwood’s Missouri campus, then affiliated with the NAIA, on an academic leadership scholarship. He walked onto the basketball team as a freshman and played two years before focusing strictly on academics. In the meantime, he served as an ambassador of sorts for the university, which was desperate for students.
“Dennis Spellman was then the president of Lindenwood and he saw first-hand some of my leadership and the things I was doing,” Joe said. “During my freshman year, he told me, point-blank: ‘If there are any other kids from the Valley who’ve got what you’ve got, let’s get them up here.’ And that’s what we did. My dad and I facilitated that.”
By Joe’s sophomore year in college, there were six other Valley kids on campus. As of early June, Ben had signed 25 for the 2013-14 season.
“At the time, I was stationed in St. Louis, working for the airlines, and we started sending kids,” Ben said. “Three, four … then it opened up. I’d do the scouting and then we’d fly families up there and my son would take them to the school and show them around.
“Did you like the school? Yes. Do you want a scholarship? Yes. Here you go. It was that simple. Everybody was hurting for students at that time.”
Not anymore.
“They were looking at me as any other athlete,” said junior hurdler Mike Reynoso, a Mission High grad who now thrives at the NCAA DII level for Lindenwood in track and field. “They saw I went to regionals my freshman and sophomore years, and my junior and senior years I went to state. They saw that progress and offered me a scholarship.
“Mr. Ben Lopez really stressed this was about the students. It wasn’t about the university. It was about the people.”
GOOD PEOPLE
For eight years, Ben volunteered as a Lindenwood recruiter for the south Texas area. But in 2003, after serving his 33rd year working for the airlines, he was ready to retire and return home for good.
Lindenwood, however, had different plans.
“They said, ‘Oh, no you’re not (retiring). You’ve helped us for over eight years, brought in some good kids who have graduated and been successful, and you never asked for a penny. Now we’re going to put you on the payroll and you’re going to keep on doing what you’re doing,’” Ben said.
Ben agreed. His responsibilities expanded. Today, he recruits kids from all over south Texas, and even as far out as Houston, El Paso and Dallas. His M.O. has always been simple: open the door for local kids to have an opportunity to get to college, just as the university did for Joe, now heading into his third year as the principal at Mission High.
Ben doesn’t turn anyone down. What matters to him, and in effect Lindenwood, is who wants an education.
“It’s something we’re very proud of,” said Joe Parisi, Lindenwood’s dean of admissions. “It was initially a diversity issue for us, having administrators from Texas with a bunch of rich history from south Texas. And I would take it a step further … it’s not just athletes, but we have a referral system now for student recruitment in south Texas.
“We have good people who find good people.”
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
“Lindenwood has provided kids from the Rio Grande Valley a great opportunity,” Joe Lopez said. “It’s special to be a part of, and athletics are great, but it’s about the education.
“When you leave high school, it becomes about opportunity. And Lindenwood is doing that with its presence here in the Valley.”
There is a stigma that Valley athletes are homebodies. Most, it is said, are reluctant to leave the Valley, and end up at UTPA or South Texas College and then working somewhere close to home. Lindenwood is trying to break that mold, and indeed it’s this area’s moxie that has fascinated Parisi.
“There are great students down there,” Parisi said. “What has always impressed me is they’re hungry. They have the work ethic. They want to learn. They want to grow. I’ve traveled the U.S., and in some cases you see so many people who don’t have that. South Texas individuals want to learn, they want to explore.”
And while that eagerness is half the battle, Valley kids have done well and capitalized on it. Lindenwood-Belleville is more suited for Valley athletes in regard to a developmental stage. The NAIA allows for bigger roster sizes, including developmental squad opportunities, and Ben steers Valley prospects that way exactly for that reason.
Today, a top scholarship offer from Lindenwood in Missouri is $66,920 for four years, where the parents pay nothing. Several of those were given out this season, including to Weslaco East softball player Monica Ramirez. A typical Lindenwood-Belleville NAIA scholarship goes for about $55-65 thousand over four years.
As more aid, three years ago Parisi developed the Urban Scholarship, a diversity allotment for diversity initiatives. It offers an extra three thousand dollars, specifically for students from the Valley.
In all, the size of a potential scholarship simply depends on financial aid, as well as the Lindenwood coaches.
“I can tell you that the students that come from the Valley have been successful,” Parisi said. “They’re funeral directors, they’re federal agents, they’re teachers … students are getting an education and bringing that back to the Valley.”
COMMITTED TO KIDS
Former McAllen Rowe standout Raul Villarreal, now a junior athlete on the court for Lindenwood-Belleville, said it’s the university’s approach that stands out.
“It’s a difference knowing that someone wants you,” Villarreal said. “That’s what got me.”
It’s not just during the recruiting period either. It’s everywhere.
“I had trouble with classes for a bit, doing bad on my tests in my second semester of my sophomore year, and my coach kept with me,” Villarreal said. “He emphasized doing homework, and that’s all I would do. They keep on top of you, man.
“There’s no real chance to slip.”
For Ben Lopez, that’s all part of the plan. That type of commitment is what won over Rio Grande City’s Lisa Gonzalez, who signed a scholarship to wrestle at Lindenwood after winning the state title in Austin earlier this spring.
“I followed Lisa since she was a freshman,” Ben said. “I went to all her tournaments. I paid close attention, especially because every year she was getting better and better. Her senior year, of course, she went to state. I told her I’d give her what she wanted, and she said, ‘I’ll do it. Where do I sign?’
“You have to have a dedication to this. I’m the first one there and the last one to leave.”
Dennis Silva II covers sports for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4451 or at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @densilva2.